Madam Chairman, Canadians take little solace in that answer in the sense that the government announced a pittance in terms of the financial commitment to the armed forces in the December budget. The defence minister could not even protect that part of the budget and prevent the government from buying its new flying palaces, the new Challenger jets, which were totally unnecessary and a bad sense of timing.
Canadians have learned that the Sea King replacement project has been delayed yet again. The pre-qualification letter was to have been released on April 2 but it was postponed. Why? When is it expected that the pre-qualification letter will be issued?